Heaton Junior Open Report

Fog, early evening darkness and a confusing city centre hotel location certainly challenged the navigational skills of the three Northumbrian families who travelled down to Bradford for the Heaton Junior Open tournament on 12/13 December 2009. However our players were undaunted and put up a brisk challenge to the predominantly Yorkshire entrants.

In the Girls’ U17 event, Rebecca Wiggins did well to win her first match but both she and Beth Robertson were then faced with strong and determined opponents.

Simon Graham was unlucky to be drawn against the low seeded but talented Yorkshire player Jack Bearpark in the first round of the Boys’ U15. He regained confidence by comfortably winning his next three matches to secure the Plate medal.

In the Boys’ U13, Alex Robertson and Chris Wiggins both won their first two matches then found themselves playing each other in the semi-final. The pair are usually well-matched but it was Chris on this occasion who went through to the final against the much higher ranked James Connor from Cheshire. In a gritty performance, Chris took a decisive early lead of 2-0 but James fought back and scraped the title by a couple of points in a tight fifth game, leaving Chris to come away with a very creditable second place medal.